New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $27.64 Million Stock Position in MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its holdings in shares of MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) by 12.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 48,880 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,881 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.06% of MSCI worth $27,642,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Menard Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of MSCI during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Olde Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in MSCI during the first quarter worth $27,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in MSCI by 293.8% during the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 63 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC raised its stake in MSCI by 122.6% during the fourth quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 69 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HWG Holdings LP bought a new position in MSCI during the first quarter worth $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.97% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Cd Baer Pettit sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.59, for a total transaction of $2,762,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 289,787 shares in the company, valued at approximately $160,133,398.33. The trade was a 1.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 3.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MSCI shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of MSCI in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $585.00 target price for the company. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of MSCI from $655.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of MSCI from $530.00 to $578.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of MSCI in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $651.55.

MSCI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MSCI opened at $570.65 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $565.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $568.46. MSCI Inc has a 1 year low of $486.74 and a 1 year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.88 by $0.12. MSCI had a net margin of 39.08% and a negative return on equity of 145.52%. The business had revenue of $745.83 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $746.45 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that MSCI Inc will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th were issued a dividend of $1.80 per share. This represents a $7.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 16th. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.48%.

MSCI Company Profile

MSCI Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community to manage investment processes worldwide. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed financial product, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct.